DCI continues work on 26-year-old murder case
Mentions: Bitter Creek Betty and Sheridan County Jane Doe Publication: Gillette News Record Date: 27 April 2018 Author: Ashleigh Fox Original: https://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/wyoming/article_aa9d0906-279c-5434-9fde-6e359d106ea0.html ---- SHERIDAN — Twenty-six years ago, a murderer dumped the body of a girl aged 17 to 23 years in Sheridan County. The victim remains unidentified, along with another girl killed by the same man and dumped in Sweetwater County. Despite 26 years of separation between the incidents and today’s standing cold case, agents from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and other law enforcement agencies remain diligent in pursuing peace for the victim’s family. “Now, they can’t speak for themselves. We have to speak for them,” DCI agent Loy Young said. “If we can identify them and lay them to rest properly, maybe give family members who have been wondering about them for 26 years some closure or at least a peace of mind knowing that they’re now resting in peace, that’s a win regardless. “Sure, we would always like to find out who did it and see justice served, but sometimes that happens; a lot of times it doesn’t in these cases.” Steve Woodson started as the DCI director in October 2012. Soon after, he created a cold case unit, putting teams together that included agents and professionals from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, scientists from the state crime lab and DCI agents. Those teams, separated by location in the four corners of the state, brought differing perspectives and fresh eyes to existing cold cases. The first case Young pulled after being selected to the team for the northeast corner of the state was Sheridan County Jane Doe. DCI Northeast team leader Louey Williams completed a significant amount of work on the case before handing it over to Young. Before presenting it to the other cold case units in the state, Young discovered the murder suspect matched the DNA profile of the suspect of another case in Sweetwater County. Agents found that the woman, known as Bitter Creek Betty, was around the age of 24 to 30 years old when murdered and dumped off Interstate 80. Woodson initiated a protocol to gain fresh perspectives on the cases and hopefully uncover new leads. Young and the agent caring for the Bitter Creek Betty case presented most recent evidence and findings together. Several entities have contributed to the advancement of the Jane Doe and Bitter Creek Betty cases. Drastic improvements in DNA testing, including Parabon Snapshot phenotyping, ancestry and kinship analysis, helped reveal ancestry of Jane Doe and determined Bitter Creek Betty was of South American and European descent, not Native American as previously estimated by agents. Rick Weatherman, an anthropology professor at the University of Wyoming, helps corroborate or disprove hits or tips on cold cases by comparing cranium and dental structures. Because of his expertise, Weatherman helped solve another cold case in Wyoming through his isotope testing. Through Weatherman’s testing, it was revealed that Jane Doe was younger in age than the previous estimate. Because of those changes, new facial recognition renderings were created to help identify the victims. Those photos have been shared across the nation in hopes of identifying the woman. A hobbyist out of the New England area, Liz Marshall, became intrigued by a blog, “Can You Identify Me?”, as a young teenager. “It haunted me for years,” Marshall wrote in an email. “It was very morbid.” The intrigue grew into a passion of matching missing persons cases to unidentified bodies, contacting investigators and making friends interested in true crime. “After that, I just kept going with it,” Marshall said. Marshall came across the two female victims on a website called WebSleuths. Several hobbyists created multiple websites to help investigators with their search for identification for bodies. Marshall was particularly drawn to Jane Doe and Bitter Creek Betty due to the lack of activity on their cases on those sites. She then created Facebook pages in hopes of helping move the investigation along. Young, while hesitant to share artist renderings that may not be as accurate as he’d like, said any spark or tip deriving from those renderings is helpful in possible identification of the victims. He welcomed hobbyists or anyone with information to contact the investigating agents. Agents then compare tips to DNA or dental evidence of the victims. With advancements in DNA testing, victim profiles have become more accurate, but investigators still become frustrated from time to time. Because of 26 years separating the incident from today’s cold case, suspects and family members have a chance of being deceased. Fresh eyes and younger members of investigative teams keep the older investigators hopeful for new leads and ideas for the cases. Several entities remain fixated on a shared goal — providing peace for the deceased or their family members by finding answers and, ideally, serving justice where it’s due. Category:Apr 2018 Category:Gillette News Record Category:Mentions with red links